Harrowing Of Hell

Category: Human Identity & Purpose

Letting Go

Sermon | March 31, 2013

March 31,2013, The Rev Doyt Conn preaching

“I am spiritual, but not religious.” It is a statement that confirms these statistics. When I hear it I nod… no I don’t shake my head, I nod, because Jesus wasn’t religious either. Yes, it’s true. That might surprise you, coming from a priest, but Jesus was not only not religious, he was a bit anti-religious, which was a stance that ultimately landed him on the cross. That was back in the day when being spiritual but not religious actually cost something.

EULOGY FOR CHARLEY BUSH

Sermon | March 16, 2013

March 16, 2013, The Rev Doyt Conn preaching

I consider it a great privilege to stand here and remember our friend Charley Bush on behalf of the community. It is a humbling challenge because I know for certain that if each one of us came forward today and spoke for an hour on the life of Charley Bush we still wouldn’t do justice to this most magnificent man.

Repent!

Sermon | March 5, 2013

March 3, 2013, The Rev Kate Wesch preaching

What Jesus does do is call people to repentance! Yet, this is where it gets tricky. Having rescued us from the notion of a “God who pulls the strings” and “works good things for the good and bad things for the bad,” it is tempting to use repentance as a way to re-enter that “prison we know.” We are tempted to view repentance as that act which resets the ideology back to its default.

In the Name of Jesus

Sermon | December 23, 2012

December 23, 2012 The Rev Doyt Conn preaching

I’d like to stand up here this morning and inspire the congregation around issues pertaining to gun control. I’d like to stand up here this morning and galvanize our common will to serve people who suffer with mental illness. These are topics on our collective mind after all. Because they were two forces that added to the nightmare that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, a week ago Friday. Certainly these two things were at play. And as people of action, and power, and compassion we seek the cause of this horrible crime, to point at it, to pull the string and snip it short, so something like this never happens again. This is our common prayer.

Armstrong, Wilberforce, and Character Formation

Sermon | October 28, 2012

October 28, 2012, The Rev Doyt Conn preaching

I said recently from this pulpit that “God is good,” to which you responded, “All the time.” “All the time,” “God is good.” And I believe this. I believe this for many reasons, but chiefly today because we have been running a sermon series on character, and Lance Armstrong has entered the picture, leaving, I might add, seven blank slots in the Tour de France record books.

God is Good

Sermon | September 30, 2012

September 30, 2012, The Rev Doyt Conn preaching

God is good. I know this first hand. After all, last Sunday it was Kate, not me, who had to preach on the Proverb text “Ode to a Capable Wife.”

Ode to Character and a Woman of Worth

Sermon | September 23, 2012

September 23, 2012, The Reverend Kate Wesch preaching.

A headline from the Wall Street Journal caught my eye the other day. It read, “Opting Out of the ‘Rug Rat Race’.” The article itself was adapted by Paul Tough, the author of a new book to summarize its main point, namely that modern parenting is structured to produce exceptional cognitive skills in children, but not character.

The Nature of the Christian

Sermon | September 16, 2012

September 16, 2012, The Rev Doyt Conn preaching.

In 1933 Adolf Hitler passed the Enabling Act which boycotted Jewish owned stores throughout Germany. On the day the law was enacted Julia Bonheoffer, the 90 year old grandmother of Dietrich Bonheoffer, went shoppingwhere she always went shopping because that is where she shopped.